Brazilian exchange student Lucas Trentin de Carli addressed the luncheon meeting of the Hudson Clocktower Rotary on May 30, sharing what it's like to arrive in America with few contacts and little experience.
Brazil exchange student Lucas Trentin de Carli arrived here last July and has almost completed his year in Hudson. He has lived in two different host houses.
Lucas is a junior, and when he returns to his home in Southern Brazil, he will finish high school. Their year runs from February to November. Summer is the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere.
He picked the United States as his first choice, The trip was harder than he expected because he was home sick.
Lucas has an older brother who has graduated from college, a mother who is a geography teacher and his father has a lot of chickens on his farm. Lucas did not get to play soccer here because the tryouts were over when he arrived.
He has visited the Akron Rotary Camp and he went to New York City and New Jersey over spring break. Now that school is over, he's going to visit San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Lucas said he thought people were more open at home because the high school students had more cliques here. His English is excellent because he studied the language for six years at home.
Lucas wore a jacket with hundreds of pins from other exchange students he has met. He was glad to add a Hudson Clocktower pin to his collection.